Granted, war kills people, but does this journalist really believe Iraq was in better shape with Saddam Hussein as the President?

Quote:

Bush's 'icy smile' enraged Iraqi shoe throwerJournalist tells court he aimed to express 'the hatred we have for this man'

Khalid Mohammed / AP

Supporters and relatives of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who gained cult status for throwing his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush, wave as he is taken away from court in a Humvee in Baghdad, Iraq.

msnbc.com news services
updated 1 hour, 44 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush said in the past he had videotaped himself practicing the Arab insult to use against the president whose "icy smile" had filled him with uncontrollable rage.

At the start of his trial in Baghdad on charges of assaulting a foreign leader, Muntadhar al-Zeidi said he recorded his shoe-throwing training two years ago and had hoped to accost Bush in Jordan but this did not take place.

Al-Zeidi, who was hailed across the Middle East by critics of the Iraq invasion and who also called Bush a "dog," told the court he had acknowledged making a training film under interrogation after his arrest at a Baghdad news conference.

"I said this before the guards of the prime minister after I was beaten and after my body was devoured by electricity," said al-Zeidi, who added that his original plan had been to throw the shoes at Bush during a news conference in Amman.

But al-Zeidi, whose unusual protest overshadowed Bush's final visit to Iraq in December, insisted he had not planned to attack Bush this time.

Instead, he said Bush's smile as he talked about achievements in Iraq had made him think of "the killing of more than a million Iraqis, the disrespect for the sanctity of the mosques and houses, the rapes of women," and enraged him.

"He was talking and at the same time smiling icily at the (Iraqi) prime minister. He said to the prime minister that he was going to have dinner with him," al-Zeidi told a three-judge panel, a small army of 25 defense lawyers lined up next to him.

"Suddenly I saw no one in the room but Bush. I felt the blood of innocents was running under his feet while he was smiling coldly as if he had come to write off Iraq with a farewell meal."

'The prime murderer'
Al-Zeidi added: "After more than a million Iraqis killed, after all the economic and social destruction ... I felt that this person is the killer of the people, the prime murderer. I was enraged and threw my shoes at him."

At the time, al-Zeidi shouted at Bush that the shoe-throwing was a "goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog."

The trial had barely begun at Iraq's Central Criminal Court in the heavily fortified Green Zone before the judges postponed proceedings until March 12 so it could be determined if Bush was truly on an "official" visit to Iraq as a head of state.

When al-Zeidi appeared in court, family members waiting for him ululated wildly and draped an Iraqi flag across his shoulders.

Al-Zeidi, 30, who faces up to 15 years in prison, has been detained for more than two months.

The reporter for an Iraqi television station based in Cairo became a hero in much of the Middle East and his protest was played by television stations around the world.

Sectarian warfare
Bush, whose support of Israel and decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein made him passionately disliked in the region, nimbly ducked out of the way of the first shoe and made light of the incident.

The second shoe also missed the American president.

The invasion plunged Iraq into six years of sectarian warfare and insurgency that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Al-Zeidi was transformed into a cult figure across the Muslim world where thousands hailed him as a hero and demanded his release for what they considered a justified act of patriotism.

Haider Ahmed, a government employee, called al-Zeidi a patriot. "He allowed us to hold our heads high," he said.

Al-Zeidi's lawyers lost an appeal to have the charges reduced to insulting Bush. They argued he could not have hurt Bush with a shoe.

Al-Zeidi himself said he could not be charged with assaulting a visiting head of state when that leader was also the chief of an occupation force. "How can he be a guest in an area that they themselves run?" he said.

"I did not intend to kill U.S. President Bush. But I wanted to express what is inside of me and what is inside all Iraqis, from north to south and east to west, the hatred we have for this man."

It was better with Saddam in charge. Shoulda just bombed the **** out of him, so he can't do much back, and then say, go on Saddam run it again.

The fact is Saddam only cared about his power, we only had to nullify him and he would of had towed the line and he wouldnt tolerate any terrorists in Iraq as they threaten his power.

I read a biography on Saddam a few years back. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to finish the "remaining" part of it because I finished it 1 day after his sons were killed.

When he first became President, it was around the same time they discovered oil. The economy boomed and he took great care of everybody. He built infrastructure, founded education, roadways, etc. That only lasted a few years, then he began lacing his own pockets with the oil money and cut off his people. At the very least, this man deserved to die for the Halabja poison gas attack (the gas bombing of the Kurds in 1988).

If you've ever talked to Iraqi immigrants to the U.S., there's 1 main reason they left, fear of Saddam's regime.

If you've ever talked to Iraqi immigrants to the U.S., there's 1 main reason they left, fear of Saddam's regime.

I know a family that lives near to me that moved here to the U.S. in 1989. They still have relatives in Iraq. I have had lengthy discussions with them about Saddam. I can confirm from most of those discussions that most Iraqi's feared Saddam. They actually compared him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the Bible. Before GOD humbled King Nebuchadnezzar, he was a ruthless dictator!

Iraq might have been better off under Saddam's regime, but the countries around them are probably better off now ...

Define what you mean by better off

Certain sections of the population were VERY well off under Saddam, Certain sections of the population lived in fear of Genocide on a mass scale. Depends which side of that divide you lived on doesnt it.

Whilst Saddam Rulled public amenities were offered to the majority of the population. Proper Housing, and Safe Drinking water. These things in certain areas were distoryed for a while during the Invasion....and are not as good as they were. So it depends on where exactly you live in Iraq doesnt it.

If he's a journalist he aint looking at it from an Iraqi point of view, because he is too knowledgable on HOW the war happened. If he wants to accuse George Bush of doing wrong, he has knowledge about the violation of International Law...normal Iraqi people wouldnt know, and probably wouldnt care, Normal Americans know and still dont care.

Europeans might have an issue....The French went Nuclear about it at the time So the point is, this Journalist cant be thought to represent the majority of native Iraqis, therefore, whatever he thinks is mute as to be taken for a reflection of his society.

But it was bloody rude of him to throw a shoe at the President, he should probably stand trial and be executed for insolence...and lets hope those protecting Obama are slightly more on the ball